Development of a novel antimicrobial for the treatment of an economically important disease in chickens

与其他肉类相比，禽肉目前具有若干相对优势，例如价格合理、方便、没有限制消费的宗教指南、健康形象、温室气体排放有限、生产成本较低、饲养时间短和所需投资较少。人口的快速增长、城市化进程的加快和新兴市场人均收入的提高意味着，到2050年，我们对粮食的需求将比现在至少增加70%。这一挑战是重大的，特别是考虑到自然资源的限制，例如可耕地和淡水，将限制可用于满足这种增加的需求的资源。粮农组织估计，家禽疾病造成的经济损失目前占发达家禽业生产总值的10%至20%，在发展中国家可能更高。这相当于浪费了大量的资源。因此，为了满足未来对动物蛋白的需求，必须减少这种由疾病造成的浪费。鉴于抗生素的广泛使用在过去30年里极大地提高了养猪业的生产率，由于抗生素耐药性、监管和消费者压力的增加，抗生素的广泛使用即将结束，这一点尤为重要。该项目旨在开发一种新的基于蛋白质的抗菌剂，该抗菌剂将选择性地杀死家禽中发现的具有经济破坏性的细菌物种，从而能够在家禽业中可持续地替代某些抗生素。

Poultry meat currently enjoys several comparative advantages over other meats, e.g. affordability, convenience, absence of religious guidelines restricting consumption, healthy image, limited GHG emissions, lower production costs, short rearing time and lower required investments. Rapid population growth, increased urbanisation and rising per capita income in emerging markets mean we are going to need at least 70% more food by 2050 than what is available today. This challenge is significant, especially given that natural resource constraints, such as arable land and fresh water, will restrict the resources available to meet this increased demand. The FAO estimates that economic losses to poultry diseases are currently 10 to 20 percent of the gross value of production in developed poultry industries, and are likely to be higher in developing countries. This equates to a significant amount of recources wasted. Thus in order to meet future demand for animal protein such waste at the hands of disease must be reduced. This is especially pertinant given that the wide spread use of antibiotics, which has drastically increased the productivity of the proulty industry over the last 30 years, is coming to and end due to increasing antibiotic resistance, regulation and consumer pressure. This project aims to develop a novel protein based antimicrobial that will selectively kill economically destructive species of bacteria found in poultry, thus enabling the sustainable replacement of certain antibiotics within the poultry industry.